CONSTRAINTS ON LITERACY FOR WOMEN

Aftab

To account for the 'constraints' and 'causes' for the 'slow growth' in literacy rates for women in Pakistan, a number of reasons are cited by authors writing about literacy from Pakistan. Among these are: poverty, lack of women teachers, inadequate infrastructure, access to schools, irrelevance of content due to urban or class bias especially for women in rural environment, low 'status' of women, oppression and marginalization of women in patriarchal and largely feudal setup and under an obscurantist version of Islam and lack of will on the part of the government.

Some of the descriptions are:

I look at the upwardly increasing graph of illiteracy as an accelerating pressure of violence and exploitation. For the women of Pakistan, illiteracy means segregation, creation and perpetuation of a separate world doomed by poverty, deprivation and oppression. As women's deprivation of their fundamental right of free access to knowledge and learning has yet to get recognition as the base line of all forms of violence against women, strategies for the eradication of illiteracy have not yet been recognized as life­saving strategies.

The historic role of women in the construction and preservation of civilization, has been suppressed, mutilated and often, reduced to a mere footnote in scholarly works. Society in general and family in particular has been less tolerant and accommodating to the needs and requirements of women. Their identity is rejected and publicly mocked. Married women are victims of physical abuse, violence and mental and attitudinal misbehavior. Divorced and single women have an uncomfortable existence. Young girls mobility is highly restricted as it is feared that this would cause a bad name to the familv's honor. Women suffer additional constraints because their limited mobility and decision making power are controlled and restricted, thus causing a poor self­perception and low aspirations for themselves and for their daughters . . . change, in most cases, instead of altering the women's situation for the better, has added more inequalities, thus maintaining the age­old paradoxes of women's lives.

Two observations are immediately apparent. One, that as a societal problem (bias against women) runs deep, permeates society and remains an obstacle to women's development (for instance, by imposing restrictions, segregation and perpetuating violence against women). Second that literacy is associated with the positive element, progress, is 'life­saving', and as precondition ('baseline') for free access to knowledge and learning (a fundamental right) it is a requirement and solution for women's identity, well­being and self­assertion.

While rural as well as urban poor women negotiate between scarce resources and their social roles, they may seek help from outside resources. However, it does not seem that they have their own agenda or one which includes literacy.